Peaches

This time a year is get fruit in bulk cheep time of the year. That means roll in the 24 pound box of peaches. You can usually get #2 peaches (the ugly ones) for pretty cheep. I bought two boxes for $10.00 a piece. One box for eating, one box for jam. In this post I am going to be talking about the eating ones. First you need to make sure that they are ripe. If they are not ripe the skins will not easily slip off.

Make sure your peaches are nice and ripe, and clean them. Get a big pot, I use and 11 quart stock pot, and bring water to a boil. Blanch you peaches for 30 to 60 seconds.

Drop peaches in ice cold water, and slip the skins off. If the peaches are ripe they should just come off. I always sprinkle fruit fresh from ball on them to keep their color from turning. See getting started (water-bath canning) for getting your jars ready

You now need to cut them in half and remove the pit. The peaches can be canned this way pit side down. Or you can cut them smaller. I cut them smaller because it is less work later on with the kids. You also have to decide how heavy you want your syrup. I always go with a very light syrup (1 cup sugar to 9 cups water). There are many charts online telling you how to make the syrup. You can also do this with just water, or apple/ white grape juice. It depends on what you like and how much sugar you want.

There are also two methods of canning these. If you hot pack, and use a heavier syrup the fruit shouldn’t float. The hot pack method you get your fruit ready and cut them. Then in a large sauce pan you heat up the prepared fruit and syrup to a boil. Hot pack the fruit and juice into the jars leaving a 1/2 head space. Remove air bubbles, wipe jar rims and put the lids and rings on.

If you cold (raw) pack, the fruit, no matter how heavy the syrup, it will most likely float. Unless you are entering in the fair, trying to get an award, floating fruit is no different than non floating fruit. It all taste the same. With cold packing you cut the fruit and put it in the jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Fill with hot syrup/water/ juice leaving the 1/2 headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe jar and put on lids and rings.